Dokk gaped at the unmoving bodies of the three goblin champions lying on the ground, then turned his attention to Yeung who was shrugging his shoulders and showing a forced smile.

“D-don't act like t-this was nothing!! Y-you just had your head cracked open this morning and now y-you're acting as if you never did!”
“Uhhh...”

Yeung's eyes darted from left to right as he tried to think of a plausible excuse. He remembered the screen of text, “...It's because of my skill?” He reasoned, opting for a simple explanation. Oddly enough, that was sufficient for Dokk as he replied, although grumbling, with a nod of approval.

Dokk spoke while biting on his nails, “F-fraudulent... I'm only as good when I have b-bullets, but this guy has increased strength and healing? C-Completely f-fraudulent!”

Yeung didn't say healing, specifically, but he didn't refute and just let Dokk spin off his own tale.

“Why don't you carry a slingshot then? That way, you don't have to worry about ammunition. Huhuhu.”

“Hmmm... A s-slingshot? ”

Yeung meant it as a joke but Dokk seemed to take it seriously as paused and silently thought it over.

He glanced over the now silent courtyard, “Hey, Dokk, are the kids okay?”

“Y-Yeah. They're back at the h-house. We better go b-back as well. There's less t-than an hour left of d-daylight.”

“...You go on ahead,” Yeung looked up at the sky, there was now a tinge of orange amongst the majority of the blue, “I still have something to do.”

“W-wait, you—?” Dokk planned to persuade him, but realized something belatedly.

“Yeah... See you back at your house.”

Dokk sighed and turned around, replying with a wave of his hand as he left.

Yeung brought the goblin champion's bone-sword with him and exited the school grounds from the road opposite the direction of Dokk's house. His home was less than a kilometer away. It was a distance he could cover in a few short minutes by walking.

On the way, he no longer had any encounters, just a normal stroll through the eerily quiet neighborhood.

Yeung wondered, he had seen a few traces of blood here and there, but never did he see any corpses other than the green ones. Also, he wondered how their government reacted, shouldn't they have moved to evacuate the citizens when all of this started? Such thoughts ran through his head.

Before long, he finally reached the gates of a modestly-sized house. It was two-storeys tall and simply designed. Yeung thought that its lack of complexity only added to its overall sense of beauty.

“...Mother liked white.” He thought, as he admired the plain white-painted walls of the house.

He reached through the gaps of the gate, unlocking the mechanism and allowing him into the property. It was a tedious process he always had to go through before getting to the front door.

“...Father always prioritized security.”

Yeung laid down the bone-sword and removed a string lace he wore around his neck from his inside his collar. He stared at the key dangling from the necklace for a few seconds before using it to open the front door.

“I'm home...” He whispered with closed eyes.

—Removing his shoes and slipping into comfortable slippers, he entered into the quiet house.

...Upstairs, he immediately threw off his clothes and took a quick shower. It was better that he took this chance as he didn't know when it was that running water might cease operating.

After cleaning up, he exited the bathroom and sighed at the empty room. The second floor had nothing but a small bathroom, a wooden bed, and the cabinet he used to store his few articles of clothing.

He dried himself, dressed up, placed a few clothes into a backpack and then went back downstairs.

...Looking around, there was not much difference between the first and the second floor of his house. Like on the second floor where he slept, the first also had no partitions. It had no kitchen, no living room— nothing to indicate that he lived with anyone else.

On one side of the room, however, there was another wooden cabinet. Yeung walked over and placed his hands on its doors and opened them slowly.

Inside was a small picture frame with a photo of a younger Yeung. He touched his fingers to the frame and slowly caressed the glass held by the frame.

Yeung smiled at the sight of the boy posing in front of a small but humble home. Behind the boy— an older lady who was tenderly looking in his direction. Yeung then chuckled as his eyes went to a smiling man seated on the roof of the house, holding up a hammer.

“Mother, Father...” Yeung whispered, “The house that father wanted to build... The one that mother always dreamt about... “

His eyes started to water as he struggled to speak.

“It doesn't look like I can finish it either...”

*

Dokk didn't immediately head home after separating with Yeung. He took out a pack of cigarettes as well as a lighter, and sat down on the hood of an abandoned vehicle as he stared at the darkening sky.

Huff...

Yeung's fixation on his house... Dokk knew the reason. That's why he didn't try to persuade him any further.

His house... It was the main reason why Yeung had taken a job so far away. It was for a high paying salary that would go into construction of the house.

Dokk puffed out a cloud of smoke, “He was p-pretty much done as well. If uncle c-could see the house, I believe he w-would've been proud... Aunty, she...”

He bit his lip as he looked down with a sad expression, before throwing the cigarette that still had more than half a stick to the ground.

“...She t-told me to quit.” He muttered, releasing a heavy sigh.

Dokk silently stared at the moon that had made itself present above the town. It wasn't even a full moon but it was unusually brighter tonight.

[Phase two ■ Initiating ■ #%!# tier spec#!%# ■ ■ % assimilation ]

“...!?”

His eyes widened at the sudden appearance of a screen of text, but calmed down after a second and took out a different stick of cigarette.

Huff...

Another puff of white smoke emerged from his lips as he sat and continued to stare at the night sky.